Särmä TST RP80 Recon Pack

The RP80 is a large, top-and-bottom loading sustainment pack that carries enough gear to keep you going for weeks. Although streamlined and straightforward the pack design offers almost endless possibilities for modular scaling and optimizing

Designed for the Nordic end-user, this requires large backpacks to be tall and slim, not short and wide as most European and American designs. This design keeps the weight closer and above your center of gravity and spine and allows for unrestricted arm movement when skiing.

• Volume 80 l (4882 in³)
• Weight: 3800 g / 8.4 lbs(complete)
• Main bag only: 1700 g / 60 oz.
• Frame only: 740 g / 26 oz.
• Shoulder harness only: 600 g / 21 oz.
• Hip belt only: 750 g / 26 oz.
• Adjustable carry system for user heights 160-200 cm / 5' 3 - 6' 6"
• Roll-top top closure, zipper access at the bottom
• Cinch cord divider inside main bag
• Hydration compartment inside main bag
• Large open bottom corner pouches
• Side and bottom compression straps
• PALS webbing on main bag and hip belt
• Quick release shoulder harness for emergency ditching
• Materials:
• 1000D Cordura
• PES webbing
• DUR-aluminium (frame)
• Metal and ITW plastic buckles
• All materials are NIR compliant

Assembly and height adjustment

The RP80 is delivered unassembled. Assembly and adjustment is your first challenge before taking your new pack into service. Understanding the construction, assembly and height adjustment of the pack are all equally important, so assemble and adjust with thought and care!

The pack bag

• Dimensions 85 x 37 x 25 cm / (33.5" x 14.5" x 10") + bottom corner pouches
• Total volume 80 liters (4882 in³)
• Two large bottom corner pouches. Volume approx. 2,5 liters / 150 in³ per pouch
• Drawcord divider inside, top compartment height 60 cm / 23.5", bottom compartment height 25 cm / 10"
• Roll top closure on top
• Zippered bottom access with two security/compression straps
• Two compression straps on each side
• Hydration bladder compartment inside
• Uninterrupted PALS matrix goes around the whole upper half of the bag
• Two vertical attachment point straps along the back
• Two fixed carry handles on the back of the main bag
• Comes with three carry handle straps which can be attached wherever you want them!

Carrying system

The RP80 carrying system was designed from scratch instead of just using some ancient Finnish military designs or components. The end result is superior comfort in comparison to the old Finnish military issue systems. One of the most valuable features of the RP80 carrying system is the adjustable back length. The system can be adjusted to fit users from 160 up to 200 cm / 5' 3" - 6' 6" tall.

Aluminium frame

The frame was designed especially for the RP80 rucksack, we didn´t simply take some outdated design and recycle it. Compared to the decades-old Finnish military issue frames this one has a bottom shelf, wider and taller overall dimensions, and two parallel vertical reinforcement rods on both sides of the center instead of a single centered one.

Shoulder harness

The padding is thermal molded and stitched onto 1000D Cordura on top of which all the straps etc. are bar-tacked. What really sets this design apart from the old Finnish military issue harnesses is the big pads against the back which really make a great difference compared to just a flat length of wide webbing.

The rucksacks back length and overall fit are adjusted by lowering or lifting the attachment height of the shoulder harness. The load lifter straps that run from the top of the shoulder harness to the frame are used to adjust the balance on the go, by loosening the straps the pack hangs further away from your body and the weight is transferred onto the hips. By tightening the straps the pack moves closer to your body and more weight is put on the shoulders.

The lower adjustment of the shoulder harness is done using two, virtually indestructible, welded steel D-rings which also offer a means of quick release by pulling the attached webbing handles upwards.

Hip belt

And once more, also the hip belt was designed from scratch instead of just copying some ancient Finnish military design. The hip belt is thoroughly padded and topped with PALS webbing for pouch attachment. The big lower back pillow can be opened up for the hip belt to be tucked away when you don't want to use it. The construction is overall really strongly padded and rigid.

Modular and configurable

Overall volume and many other features of the rucksack are easily modified according to user-specific needs:

• Tie-down straps: by running a couple of utility straps through the vertical attachment points on the back you can easily tie a sleeping mat or similar bundles to the far back of the pack.
• Side pouches: add a few XL utility pouches for extra pack volume and added organizing options.
• Hip belt: attach a bunch of pouches here for easy access to critical gear.
• Daypack lid: a quick-detach top lid which transforms into a small daypack, possibly the smartest way of integrating a daypack into your sustainment load. Take a look at our illustrated tutorial on the subject: Särmä TST backpack use as daypack lids
• Cargo panel: such as the Varusteleka Modular Beavertail a very simple and versatile addition which allows you to attach and compress all kinds of extra gear on the outside of the main pack.

Materials

Made of the same materials and hardware (1000D Cordura, webbing, ITW Nexus buckles, etc.) that are used in the production of the Finnish military M05 combat equipment. High quality, totally NIR compliant and all that, naturally.

Made in Finland and Estonia

These manufactured in co-operation with Finn-Savotta Oy (Finland's leading military and outdoors gear manufacturer and the main load-bearing equipment contractor for the Finnish Defence forces). Depending on the situation production runs are sewn either in Savotta's Finnish or Estonian factory, sometimes even partially in Finland and partially in Estonia. The little printed tags tell where exactly each particular product was sewn.